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Description
Fairmont City, Illinois, July 30, 2023.

There are a few places where they haven't bothered to paint over the black stripes of Venture's logo.

Venture stores got their well earned demise in 1998.

Venture was the May Department Stores response to the discount department stores like Target and Walmart.

I always thought that Venture tried to be higher class than Target. Not that their wares were any better, but by having a snotty attitude.

Venture had a reputation of being a bad neighbor. Their first store was built on a former golf course in Overland Missouri. Trucks that arrived at night and needed to be unloaded were instructed to park alongside the houses that used to look over the old golf course. The noise of the idling trucks would disturb everyone's sleep and pleading with the managers and executives didn't help.
In addition to that, the storm sewers in the parking lot were hooked up to the much lower capacity residential sewers. This caused sewage to back up into the houses every time it rained.

Speaking of sewers, the store Venture built in Kirkwood Missouri didn't have sewers installed in their parking lot. Instead they had it drain into the neighboring community of Meacham Park. Meacham Park is a historically African-American community and the executives at May Department Stores figured they could do this with impunity to the low income community.

Description
Fairmont City, Illinois, July 30, 2023.

There are a few places where they haven't bothered to paint over the black stripes of Venture's logo.

Venture stores got their well earned demise in 1998.

Venture was the May Department Stores response to the discount department stores like Target and Walmart.

I always thought that Venture tried to be higher class than Target. Not that their wares were any better, but by having a snotty attitude.

Venture had a reputation of being a bad neighbor. Their first store was built on a former golf course in Overland Missouri. Trucks that arrived at night and needed to be unloaded were instructed to park alongside the houses that used to look over the old golf course. The noise of the idling trucks would disturb everyone's sleep and pleading with the managers and executives didn't help.
In addition to that, the storm sewers in the parking lot were hooked up to the much lower capacity residential sewers. This caused sewage to back up into the houses every time it rained.

Speaking of sewers, the store Venture built in Kirkwood Missouri didn't have sewers installed in their parking lot. Instead they had it drain into the neighboring community of Meacham Park. Meacham Park is a historically African-American community and the executives at May Department Stores figured they could do this with impunity to the low income community.